Photos: Emily Harney
In a WBO super bantamweight title eliminator between unbeaten fighters, WBO #8 ranked Stephen “Cool Boy Steph” Fulton (18-0, 8 KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over WBO #2 Arnold Khegai (16-1-1, 10 KOs) on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Fulton outboxed the aggressive Khegai to prevail by scores of 116-112, 117-111, 117-111.
“I felt great against a tough opponent,” said Fulton afterward. “I stayed on my boxing, kept him off his game and pulled a victory out. I knew he was a rough and tumble customer, so I just had to keep my composure.
“That’s what I do. I use my jab. I tried to utilize the jab all night and win the fight behind the jab. I showed that I’m ready for a world title next.
“I stayed smart and kept boxing. I used my jab in every round and that’s why I pulled the victory out.
“It feels good to get this win. We’ve been through tough times and fought tough opponents. I’m proud of my team for staying together. We’re Philly strong.
“I want that world title. I’m going to train even harder for my next performance so if I have to dog out it out even more, I’ll be ready.”
Khegai stated, “This was my first camp with Marvin Somodio, but we only had four weeks together. He is a great trainer for me and if we had more time, I feel I would have performed a lot better. I will go back to the drawing board, but I plan to come back to the elite level and reach championship status.”
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Fulton looks like a mini-me Adrien Broner. When I was watching the fight, that’s all I could see was a reincarnated Adrien Broner fighting.
He moves better than Broner and doesn’t go into a shell when he’s facing pressure. The other thing is he doesn’t appear to have the same power as Broner. Fulton needs to work on not getting backed up so much, but Broner did a lot of that too.
Oops, let me clarify my posting. I meant he literally looks like him physically, not the way he fights. Sorry.
was I the only one that noticed how much holding Fulton was doing and NEVER got warned for it and honestly I thought Khegai outworked him but todays fighters get the benefit of promotional favoritism by the network commentators its truly irritating
Why a European would fight a North American fight in the US is beyond me. You’re four rounds behind on the scorecard before the opening bell. I hate how,bad the decisions are in this country.